The meeting allowed national trade promotion leaders to renew
contacts, share experiences in using trade promotion tools, and
identify ways to develop trade in a fast-changing environment.
During the conference, it was suggested that ITC develop a
virtual community of TPOs. In response, ITC is now developing a
World TPO Net web site; planning discussion fora; and increasing
its magazine coverage of TPOs. The aim is to facilitate networking
among trade promotion organizations and to encourage partnerships
with the broader trade development community.
The conference analysed the effects of globalization on trade
promotion systems, reviewed strategies and explored a framework for
cooperation among TPOs. Regional approaches for cooperation,
information technologies and e-commerce, public- private sector
cooperation and evaluation systems were the issues that received
most attention.
Declaration of Trade Promotion Organizations at
Marrakech
We, 112 trade promotion organizations (TPOs) from 70 countries
representing five continents, with the support of the International
Trade Centre (ITC), the participation of the World Trade
Organization (WTO), the World Intellectual Property Organization
(WIPO), and representatives of the private sector, gathered in
Marrakech on 25 to 27 October 2000, on the occasion of the third
World Conference of Trade Promotion Organizations.
Having examined new instruments and tools for trade
promotion, appropriate directions and strategies in response to the
new changes and challenges of international trade and having
undergone a broad exchange of experiences with a view to
establishing a fruitful and mutually advantageous international
cooperation,
Having underlined the new situation in international
trade, characterized by the increasing openness of economies and
markets, the strengthening of regional economic groupings, the
emergence and development of e-commerce and the preponderance of
the Internet,
Conscious of the necessary adaptations to the missions,
attributes, modes of functioning and intervention and of the need
for a strategic repositioning of trade promotion systems,
Have agreed as follows:
1. To work to create a structure for cooperation among TPOs in
the region of Africa and the Middle East, following the example of
the cooperation established in Europe, Asia and Latin America,
through, respectively, GEPCI, ATPF and Red Ibero-Americana, and to
call for closer cooperation between these groupings in order to
optimize the exchange of knowledge and technical skills between
TPOs.
2. To put in place, through ITC, a virtual network of TPOs,
which will serve as an electronic vector for information exchange,
consultation forums and virtual conferences.
3. To strengthen the capacity of enterprises, especially small
and medium-sized enterprises, to use new information and
communications technologies and to develop systems for
e-commerce.
4. To reinforce North-South and South-South cooperation in the
exchange of experiences regarding the implementation of trade
promotion techniques, in particular for e-commerce and intellectual
property, in order to allow less advanced organizations to use them
efficiently, and to incite governments to put in place the
necessary facilities and infrastructure.
5. To follow actively multilateral trade negotiations, given the
impact of the evolution of the rules of international trade on
economic actors and trade promotion systems.
6. To emphasize the increasingly close link between trade and
investment and to favour synergies between the respective
organizations concerned.
7. To hold the World Conference of Trade Promotion Organizations
on a biennial basis.
Many countries, including the People's Republic of China, have
expressed an interest in principle to organize the fourth session
of the conference in 2002. If such an interest is formally
confirmed, it will be included in the final conference document.
Failing this, ITC will be responsible for the follow-up.
(Unofficial translation by ITC from the French original
version.)